blue squirrel

after a self-imposed 20 year absence from cycling, the sport i love, i am back and dedicated to holding my own in the superfast 40+ catagory. this blog will tell the journey, the highs and the lows, the team [team becher+] and it's cast of characters, our sponsors, supporters, and other local riders that make it happen...
[anonymous comments are lame, cowboy up and put a name or start a blog]

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

look more

more race reports and funny videos, enjoy.

brisbane criterium antics by the norcal team.

race reports:

[sean neilson/roger millikan /crit 14 feb 2010]
sean neilson 7th

The Milikan Crit is held in Brea. The race was to go off at 1:25 so it gave me plenty of time to sleep in and watch Rocky 5. Just for a little inspiration, cause Mickey loves ya! Ha ah!

Anywho, the course is a four corner course with a 2-3% climb from the exit of turn 3 into turn 1, a slight down hill out of turn 2 and into 3, and there are 2 fast ’s’ curves between 4-1 and 2-3. The sun was out, and it was an awesome day for racing. The field was full and it was gonna be fun. Race started fairly easily and I quickly slotted in right behind Mike. I stayed at the front of the field for a few laps and about 4-5 laps in I gave a little effort to test the waters and see how I felt. I rolled off the front a little and saw that no one wanted to come with so I just sat up as to not use too much so early. I blended back in and for the next few laps the field was not wanting to do too much until about halfway a couple of guys decided to attack. They would dangle out front for a few laps but with the help of a few other riders they were reeled in. With about 10 minutes left another attack came and nobody responded. The chase would finally form with only a lap or two to go and unfortunately it never came back. With 2 to go it was time to move forward and get ready for a sprint. I was able to move up into the top 15 or so going into turn 3 and went around the outside of turn 4 to move up to top 10. I was able to open up a sprint and moved up to 7th at the finish. Decent finish and cannot complain as it’s more socal cup points for the team and myself. Until next time keep those pedals turning.

look

a lot has been going on with the team, namely we have gotten a lot of top 10 finishes recently. first off check out the following video of mike and john getting in some training miles in at the tour de palm springs.

I woke up in Sacramento at 3:30am and picked up Pat at 4am. We were both very sleepy but my roommate who was racing CAT 5s didn’t mind driving. We fell asleep immediatley. When we woke up we were pulling into a gas station, not for gas but for coffee. Soon after we were wide awake and pulling off the freeway, our car puttered to a stop… we were out of gas. Unknowing how far race staging was from our car we hurriedly changed into our kits and decided it would have to be our warm up. Our iPhones estimated it was 10 miles. Pat was so angry at the whole ordeal he defecated in a Gofer hole and wiped with his left hand.
Staging turned out to be 0.56 miles from our car. We registered and got to the line. At this point I realized I needed to drop the Cosbys off at the pool. I sprinted back to registration to find a 30 person line waiting for the potties. I ended up getting back to the line a few seconds before the race went off, significantly more relieved.

As for the actual race (not the beginning of the Fresno County Curse). It was pretty boring for the first couple of hours. Pat and I had great spots at the front of the race. We sat in and chit chatted. The course was a 26 mile lap total of an out and back course with a small climb at the start/finish. The total elevation gain for the 71 mile race was 2,100ft. Several attacks were launched during the second lap but none were successful. I talked to two people I recognized from the early bird RR (they had got 2nd and 3rd at that race in a break together). They said they were breaking at the overpass and that I should come. After some thought and talking with Pat I didn’t think it was a good idea. It was a mostly flat race and there would still be 20 miles to go from where they wanted to break. The time came and they got away pretty easily. There were 6 strong guys in the break and I instantly wished I was in the break. After the turn around the break was becoming out of sight and no one seemed concerned with bringing them back. Team mates of the break members were setting the pace (very slow). At this point a few people started trying to increase the pace. Pat and I led this effort and took more pulls than any one else. It seemed silly to put so much effort into bringing the break back but there was less than 15 miles left and I knew the break was strong and capable. Team mates of the break did a really good job sitting up and not pulling through. Pat and I had to constantly sprint around them as to not leave each other hanging out to dry at the front. After quite some time of this my HR hit 199bpm and I started to fade. Suddenly I looked behind me and I was the second to last person in the pack, the last person was Pat. I snapped out of it and went to the middle, Pat followed. With less than 3 miles left to go the last 2 members of the break were pulled in. The pack had diminished to roughly 30 people by this time, a lot had been dropped while pulling in that break. More people went to the front and started jockeying for position. I stayed where I was and we soon hit the climb. People on the edge immediatley slowed. Moving around them as quickly as I could I caught the wheels of the leaders. I was about 10 people back and still going uphill to the finish. With 50 meters left I fell off the back going 30mph with a HR of 201bpm. A few seconds later I got a great view of the winner crossing the line. I got passed by a few people and finished 15th. Pat finished shortly behind me in the twenties.
Bummed I went to the potty to take a leak, some one had crapped in the urinal. I felt I had been doing the wrong thing in the wrong place most of this race so this urinal seems an appropriate way to end this report.

[patrick p. / Pine Flat RR (2 of 2 of the Fresno adventure weekend) race report]patrick piccolo 23rdbenjamin barry 28thThe Fresno adventure race weekend consisted of 2 races, the first being the Cantua Creek RR on Saturday the 13th (which Ben is writing up the race report), and Pine Flat RR on the 14th. Both of these races are located in the Fresno area, so Ben and I decided to make a weekend of it and stay in Fresno on Saturday in the choice motel of the city, the aptly named “Holiday Motel.” This was an adventure in of itself, however that is a totally different story. Saturday was a hard 70 RR so Sunday morning we awoke at 5:30 am feeling stiff, groggy, and travel weary. Our start time was an ungodly 7:40 am, and the race was a good hour plus drive from the hotel, so despite our attempts to be punctual, we arrived with only moments to spare. This meant no real warm up (not good, but not totally detrimental as this was a long race that had a mellow start and a neutral roll out up a ridiculously steep hill) and no real breakfast, only some banana and hand-fulls of cornflakes in the car. The latter of the two was definitely of consequence despite the fact that both Ben and I brought ample nutrition along with us. At the start of the race I knew very little about the course except that there were 2 climbs and that it was 62 miles long. The race began with a typical slow to moderate pace as we rolled along the hills surrounding the Pine Flat Reservoir. At about mile 5 the pace quickened and we continued to move up some short, easy climbs and down some rather quick and twisting descents until at about mile 15 we hit a turnaround at the top of small, gradual climb. At this point about four or five riders broke from the group and slowly, and rather unchecked by the peleton, got away. Up to this point both Ben and myself were able to maintain good positions in the front of the peleton and both thought it was silly to joint the break group or to chase it down as there were so many miles left to race. This may have been true, however, the next 30 miles or so were pretty much downhill and the brake ended up staying away almost to the bitter end. The descending was somewhat fast, my top speed was 42, fast enough to string the pack out in to a single file for a few miles. It probably slowed things down a bit when at the top the pace was neutralized as we went around a rider from a different group with his face smashed in, blood all over the road, and a few other injured riders laying on the shoulder. After the descent there were about 15 miles of straight, smooth, and fast flats to contend with, however the pack was working like a well oiled machine with a staggering 15 plus man rotation taking short and quick, yet seeming effortless pulls (myself and Ben included). Shortly before the main climb, as a result of some jittery juniors playing bumper bikes, there were 2 pointless crashes that took out a few people, both of which happened right next to me, the second one forcing me off the road but I was able to rejoin the field with almost no effort. As the climb started the pace was intense and I really began to feel the miles in my legs from both that day, as well at the day before. This is the point where things started to go wrong. By this time the field consisted of a solid 20 or so riders hammering up the climb myself towards the back, but holding my own. At what must have been only about 200 m from the summit Ben, who had been a few riders ahead of me most of the climb, hit his wall and dropped back. We briefly spoke, but at the same time I lost contact with the group and summited with a group of 4 in time to watch the main group descend around a bend. At this point I was hurting but was in a group that was working well, and working fast. This was the last 3 miles of the race and everyone know it. A few more people joined our group and we hammered towards the last mile of the race. this last mile was a grueling up hill to the finish but I continued on and finished just making contact again with the main group at the finish line for 23rd place. A few minutes later Ben crossed the line for 28th and then we pedaled another 10 miles to the the car at the staging area, tired and disappointed. There were a few things that I did wrong, but in the end I just didn’t have the legs… thankfully its only February and I can look it as a good weekend of race training and motivation to work a bit harder for next time.

Monday, February 08, 2010

MORE ACTION jackson

sean wasn't the only team becher+ rider in action yesterday, tim 'action' jackson suited up and contested the mega fast 35+ amgen show at the red trolley crit. as most of you know tim has a harrowing bad crash on the track over a year ago and has been in the process of rebuilding his body and mind set ever since getting out of the hospital. he put all of that behind him sunday and zipped up his skin suit [XL, no less, he still has some big guns] for the first real crit of 2010. he kept it going strong for the first part of the race, but subcumped to the brutal amgen pace and retired to race another day. for tim, coming out unscratched is almost as good as contesting the sprint. we all know he expects more from himself, but all things considered, job well done tim. read more here

EXTRA EXTRA, read all about it

first win of 2010
sean neilson ripped the field at the red trolley crit in san diego this past sunday [7 feb 2010] and took the first win of the season for team becher+. we are all on cloud 9.

not only did sean rip it up on sunday in the crit, he mounted a superb campaign on saturday at the epic boulevard road race, coming in 8th after a long cold, wet effort. any top 10 finish at boulevard is a huge achievement.

the team is looking forward to giving sean and others more support in the coming months, so look for more wins and plenty of top 10 finishes, as this is finally our year to dominate. our whole team this year is full of depth, strength, courage, discipline and all out desire by everyone to work for the team and attack the field, good results will only follow.

i have a few more posts coming, as we have had our first team camp a few weeks ago, which was a huge success and other team news. we would of course like to thank our sponsors for helping to make sean's win possible, becher+, enervit, bobo's hamburgers, masi, midnight oil creative, iMartin, and greg jarrett. we would also like to thank all of those companies that give us support, especially louis garneau.

[sean's race reports]

boulevard road race

Today was the boulevard road race and someone ordered a lot of rain.

The day was filled with rain and cold. The highest temp I saw all day was 46 degrees. The course begins with a fair climb that leads into a long shallow descent then climbs back up to the start. Climbs are average 5 to 6% grade. We did roughly 50 miles, 2 laps.

100 people strarted in the rain and cold. But once we were rolling the temp wasn’t such an issue as the body heat rose. With the centerline rule in effect and a full field I knew position was most important. I got a good start and was never outside the top 10. The first half lap was fairly easy with a tempo pace. After that first half lap though legs and lungs were burning. Being at 4000 feet the air was thin. A group of us began to ride away from the group, about 15 of us. The pace was high and I was sucking air on the climb. I was shelled and in pain.

The rain didn’t let up and the chase began as I was beginning to feel better. I chased for a bit and caught up to a group of 4 guys and worked with them trading pulls and trying to close down the gap. On the last big climb I was feeling good and went to take my pull and just kept pulling until I realized I had some how ridden the whole group off my wheel leaving me to cross the line alone. Ended up 8th, unfortunately out of points and money.

Red Trolley Crit. Today was the exact opposite to yesterday. Nice blue skies with some clouds and a bit of wind.

The course is super fun with turns 1 and 2 flat and turn 3 being a fast sweeper downhill and a bit tighter but fast and fun! After turn 4 is a big ring climb that flattens to the start/finish line. Front straight had a bit of a head/cross wind and between 1 and 2 a cross wind. Rest of the course was tailwind and fast.

After yesterday having a good night relaxing and resting I felt good. From the start pace was high and the group was dropping riders every lap. I would consistently keep myself at the front being protected on the headwind and using the tailwind to my advantage to move forward. With about 20 minutes left I and another fella gave it a go and attacked the group on the climb. We would last for 1 lap as the group wasn’t going to let us go. So I would just make sure I wouldn’t let myself get swarmed and as soon as it would begin to get crowded at the front I would get up and push the pace a bit to keep position. Halfway through last lap attacks started to come so I pushed to keep with front group. Went so fast through last corner I drifted a bit before opening up a sprint on the climb probably about 8th wheel back. I went wide while everybody was wrestling for inside line and just put my head down and butt up. I was able to hold pace and come accross the line arms in the air and a loud ‘yeah!’

I couldn’t be any happier to deliever the first win of many for Team Becher+ in 2010!